1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an airbag system, and more particularly, to an airbag system that suppresses a load on a passenger when an airbag in the course of deploying and inflating contacts the passenger.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, as an airbag system that suppresses a load on a passenger when an airbag in the course of deploying and inflating contacts the passenger, there has been known one for which a soft outer cover movable with respect to an airbag body is disposed outside the airbag body so that the passenger's face slides on the surface of the airbag body with the soft outer cover to prevent an abrasion (see JP S62-43056U, for example).
Moreover, as the airbag system, there has been known an airbag system including an airbag having an airbag body and a patch, in which the patch is disposed so as to cover at least a surface of a passenger-side wall portion, and is capable of relatively moving with respect to the passenger-side wall portion of the airbag body when it contacts a passenger in the course of deploying and inflating (see JP 2003-170795A, for example). This airbag system has been constructed so that even when the airbag contacts a passenger in the course of deploying and inflating, the patch does not move in contact with the passenger, but the passenger-side wall portion smoothly moves with respect to the patch, and thus suppresses a load to be applied by the airbag to the passenger.
However, the airbag system of JP 2003-170795A has been constructed so that one of the upper end or the lower end of the patch is fixed to the passenger-side wall portion, and the patch covers the surface of the passenger-side wall portion (see FIG. 4 and FIG. 14 to FIG. 16 of JP 2003-170795A). Alternatively, it has been constructed so that both left and right ends of the patch are fixed in the vicinity of both left and right ends of the passenger-side wall portion (see FIG. 17 of JP 2003-170795A).
Therefore, in the airbag system where one of the upper end or the lower end of the patch is fixed to the passenger-side wall portion, the direction in which the patch can move with respect to the passenger-side wall portion is limited to one direction of the fixed side, so that depending on an upward or downward moving direction of the passenger-side wall portion with respect to the passenger, it has been difficult to appropriately suppress a load of the airbag to be applied to the passenger.
Moreover, in the airbag system where both left and right ends of the patch are fixed to the passenger-side wall portion, the distance by which the patch can move with respect to the passenger-side wall portion is short, so that there has been room for improvement in the point of allowing the passenger-side wall portion a large shift movement.